Monochrome Syndrome
by Angela and MiniMix
Summary: The Keehl boy, they said, was like a dragon. Viscous and cold and like a firestorm brewing in the wind; but all Harry can see is the unicorn from that first year, beautiful and dead and so terribly tragic./Oneshot, no pairings. Char death mentioned


_The Keehl boy, they said, was like a dragon. Viscous and cold and like a firestorm brewing in the wind; but all Harry can see is the unicorn from that first year, beautiful and dead and so terribly tragic._

* * *

It was a shame, they said, that his parents had died so young. Such a promising couple should have lived far longer than they had, and with such a young son too! He must miss them something awful; truly a shame.

**xxxxx**

Mihael, unfortunately, is a violent child. Prone to kicking and biting and getting into fistfights over the smallest things. (_"He looked at me funny, so I gave him a reason to!"_) When strange things begin to happen around him, things only get worse. The other children of Wammy's House avoid him, and he grows increasingly angry and resentful of their behavior. And _Near_. Oh, Near.

When he is eleven, he receives a letter addressed to Mihael Keehl, and in the resulting explosion of paranoia from the staff, he learns he is a wizard.

**xxxxx**

By the time Harry Potter begins teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, Mihael is thirteen and his Slytherin housemates hate him in their own way. (_"He's like a Gryffindor. He doesn't think things through, he's too emotional." "Lion in snake's skin, that one, firsties. Don't bother with him.")_

The other staff warn him about the Keehl boy. _He's like a dragon, that one. Violent. All fire and smoke and sharp teeth. But so smart, Potter m'boy. Like your friend Granger, he is._

Harry isn't so sure. He decides to give him a chance.

**xxxxx**

Mihael is as smart as they said, and just as violent. He's prone to using the darker curses in class and just as likely to use his fists, and Harry pulls him aside more than once to talk, to assign detention. _It's like he doesn't care what his teachers think,_ Harry realizes. _As long as someone notices him, _knows_ he's there, he doesn't care what they think._

It's sort of sad, he thinks. That someone as bright and intelligent as Mihael could be so hateful. (_Like Riddle,_ his mind whispers. _Riddle was sososo bright like a shining star and sosososo hateful and the darkness swallowed him up before anyone even knew it was there. Will he be another Voldemort, another Dark Lord?)_

**xxxxx**

He listens to the whispers and watches Mihael.

**xxxxx**

By Mihael's fifth year, he's figured out what bothers him most about the dragon comments.

The boy is far too dead inside, he realizes. Something inside him has been twisted up so badly through the years that only the hate and anger and _burning to be the best_ is all that's left. He's far too much like Voldemort and not enough like him for Harry's comfort, and he gets jittery and anxious thinking about it.

Then he hears about Kira, and Mihael comes to _life_. Harry comes across him studying spells and creatures dealing with death and dark curses and all sorts of things that should be rightfully be in the restricted section, and his heart freezes inside.

When the muggle detective L dies, Mihael deflates completely. He gets more violent and far more 'dragon-like', and only Harry realizes he's hurting inside.

And all he can think of as he watches Mihael leave Hogwarts for the last time two weeks before his O.W.L.s, is that unicorn he found in his first year, beautiful and tragic in death.

**xxxxx**

When he hears of Mihael's death a few years later in the fight against Kira, he thinks of the unicorn again; beauty killed in its prime so evil could live and flourish, and he hopes to all the gods he can think of that Mihael's blood is a curse on Kira the way the unicorn's blood had been on Voldemort.

* * *

I sort of fudged up timelines in my head while thinking about this, I think. I'm not entirely sure. XD;;

The original plot bunny for this had no L or anything, and the dragon-unicorn references made far more sense, buuuut. That was like a year ago and since I never finished it and just decided not to write it, it didn't come out that way anymore. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, really.

Also, Mello didn't bleed in death and Kira didn't drink it, so I'm pretty sure his blood didn't curse Light with a half life, but entirely not the point! /attempts witty.

Also, Narcissist will be updated. Eventually. I started college and my time is slowly being siphoned away by essays. And by Pokemon Black. Anyone wanna share friend codes? :D


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